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Entry tags:
February 2023 Test Drive Meme
FEBRUARY 2023 TDM
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Folkmore's monthly Test Drive Meme! Please feel free to test drive any and all characters regardless of your intent to apply or whether you have an invite or not.
All TDMs are game canon. You can choose to have your TDM thread be your introduction thread upon acceptance or start fresh. Each TDM will provide a scenario for how characters arrive in-game that particular month.
Playing TDMs will allow characters to immediately obtain canon items from homes especially weapons or other things they may have had on their person when they were pulled from their worlds! There will always be a prompt that provides some sort of "reward" to characters who complete certain tasks.
Current players are allowed to have in-game characters react to TDMs via the Network or make a log with the prompts. Current players are always encouraged to tag new people on the TDM!
TDM threads can be used for spoon spending at any time by characters accepted into the game.
Content Warnings: extreme weather
the time is near
in from the snow
the time is near
The earth is awakening.
You are aware of this fact before consciousness truly returns. One minute you were a falling star but as your body reforms you can sense the freshness of spring just around the corner. In your minds eye you can see circling birds in the sky, feel the first warm breeze of the season, and hear icicles melting into crystal puddles.
But something isn't right.
The moment you are truly awake you find yourself in what could generously be described as a shack built in the snowy wasteland of Wintermute. You and another Star Child are at least being kept warm by an electric heater, but there really isn't much in the way of amenities otherwise. More disturbingly, the entire shack has a deeply oppressive aura to it, encouraging the pair of you to leave as soon as you can.
But where can you possibly go?
Stepping outside reveals the answer, as parked not far from the shed is a dogsled, complete with warm winter gear to protect you from the cold.
The dogs themselves are the real marvels; not flesh and blood, the sled dogs are in fact automatons. The winter sun reflects off of their silver and copper bodies and the steady tick of their inner workings breaks the chilly silence. Each dog has a key sticking out of its back, turning slowly.
The oppressive sense you felt in the shack continues to grow. Your thoughts begin to turn negative: sad, paranoid, fearful. It is quite unbearable... until your eye falls on a delicate splash of purple against the snow.
Close to the dogsled, a single crocus pokes out of the ground.
The very sight of it calms you down. Picking it will make you feel happy, and you will find yourself blurting out the first pleasant memory that comes to mind.
The robodogs bark, delighted, encouraging you to climb aboard the sled and look for more of those flowers!
Every crocus you collect will make you feel positive emotions and the urge to share good personal moments with your companion. The more you find, the happier you will be... and you might get quite close to a total stranger as a result as well!
in from the snow
While you are out and about, you'll want to keep an eye on your team of dogs - they can and will lose power after a point. Your job as a good dog driver is to keep them wound up! Yes, you'll have to stop and physically wind the dogs back up when they lose steam.
You are likely to discover weapons jutting up from the snow. These are all unenchanted items, basic swords, guns, shields, etc., but the second you pull them from the snow the weather will take a turn for the worse. You may even be subject to a sudden avalanche! Hopefully you got the dogs wound up enough that they can get you out of there without any damage!
Eventually the dogs will choose to take you to Akhlut Station in Wintermute where you can catch the train somewhere a little warmer.
Content Warnings: Fungus, spores, live burial, mental confusion and hallucinations.
putting roots in my dreamland
coast is clear
putting roots in my dreamland
Willow is definitely warmer than Wintermute. The tail end of winter means that while much of the farmland is still blanketed in snow, the more wooded areas have large clear patches beneath the conifers. The ground here is damp and rich smelling. Poking out of the soil are tiny white mushrooms. These fungi glisten wetly, strangely compelling in their little rings of earth. You just want to take a closer look... maybe have a seat under the conifers and listen to the snow melt...
The mushrooms enchant anyone who gets close to them into simply staying put. They cloud the mind, leaving you in a dimly pleasant haze, while your body sinks slowly into the earth. The longer you stay, the more you sink - maybe a passerby can come and pull you out! If you don't wind up suffocated by dirt you will find that your head clears on its own once night falls. You will probably still need a hand pulling yourself out of the ground, but at least now you know what's going on.
The woods at night are not still - there are mice and owls and the usual nocturnal critters. There is also something else, something that moves slowly beneath the trees checking the mushroom traps. About eight feet tall, this lanky creature resembles a human skeleton held together by muscles and tendons of moss and fungus. Its head is a huge mushroom cap, underneath from which glitter a pair of bright blue eyes. If it finds any unfortunates stuck in the traps without anyone to help them, it will push their heads beneath the soil and hold them there until they die.
The sight of this creature inspires feelings of disorientation and hopelessness. These feelings are lessened when you are in close physical proximity with another Star Child, so it is to your advantage to stick together. The mushroom creature's objective remains the same: to feed the living earth with your body.
The creature is not particularly tough - its flesh is soft and gives way easily. You can defeat it easily with weapons or even your fists provided you can get close enough without succumbing to the disorientation and hopeless feelings. Oh, and you may not want to hit it on the head...
The mushroom cap, when struck, showers spores everywhere. These spores burn if they land on your skin, and if they get in your eyes they cause vivid hallucinations of ghostly figures reaching for you, trying to immobilize you. These hallucinations are so real that it is likely you will act as if they are real, standing still as if you are restrained.
If you defeat the mushroom creature, it will dissolve into the ground and leave in its place a wooden chest. Inside each of you will find some canon clothes and/or an item from your homeworlds.
coast is clear
Not far from the forest treeline, a bonfire burns merrily in the center of a circle of light green tents. The tents are kept warm by portable heaters, with some containing food and drink, and others offering small packs of seeds as gifts. These seeds are for common earth flowers and vegetables. One of the tents provides first aid supplies, in case you got roughed up fighting a giant mushroom or something.
The tents are staffed by squirrels and chipmunks. Just plain old ordinary squirrels and chipmunks. They don't speak - only chitter and occasionally screech - but they will help as best as their tiny paws allow.
This is a good time to recover, and also to talk to any other Star Children you may see.
no subject
[It's not entirely a lie. It's a name he's used before, in another situation where he did not feel entirely safe, and it slips from his lips as easily as the truth. Raphael smiles a little after the introduction but then puts his mind back to her first question as he brushes the snow away from the base of the flower.]
Much of the planet I come from has been... razed. By war.
[A small frown twitches across his expression.]
It's difficult to imagine that something as delicate as this could have survived, when so much else did not.
no subject
[because she assumes he has to be from another, she's never heard a name like that before. and the crocus is almost ridiculously fragile looking at first glance, but she knows it has to be a tough little thing to survive in this climate]
Oh. I know how that feels. Jakku, where I grew up? It was the where the last battle between the Rebels and the Empire. Pieces of old Star Destroyers, X-Wings, other ships there, loads of stuff to scavenge.
[that gets him a half-curious, half-solemn look from Rey]
It is. The pretty things are usually the first to die.
no subject
[She just said a lot of things he didn't understand, but he gets the idea - she comes from a place ruined by conflict as well. Yet, she seems to be human from what he can tell about her, so... he isn't sure how bad it would have been.
He isn't sure he wants to ask, either.
When she speaks again her phrasing makes him wince slightly and he draws his hand away from the crocus, letting out a soft sigh.]
And that's true, but... sometimes fragile things find a way to live on.
no subject
[she knows that the Resistance was counting on her to bring Luke Skywalker back and ignite the galaxy to join and resist the First Order.
but that was before she learned things she never thought she'd learn. and before Ben said 'please.'
and when he takes his hand back, she wonders if she's said or done something wrong]
Yeah. Sometimes. [she smiles and it's clear that she feels awkward] So, how do we dig up the flower?
no subject
[It's going to make digging it up a little tricky, especially without damaging it. Raphael brushes the snow away from around the plant and presses his fingers into the soil around it. Perhaps it's because of the insulation of the snow on top, but beneath the initial frosty crust the earth is softer than he expected.]
Ah-- no, it's...
[He peels up the thin layer of icy, semi-solid dirt.]
Do you have something to hold it..?
no subject
[and what little did, Rey would carefully uproot it and plant it in her AT-AT house, tending to it like a mother. most of the time, though, like most transplants on Jakku, they ended up dying]
Uh. There's the end of my wrap? [she lifts up the end of a looped over grey pleated wrap for inspection]
no subject
[He could probably come up with something himself - while he can't make something from nothing, he can usually repurpose things around him to make something new - but right now he's too focused on keeping a low profile to consider things like creation.
Raphael begins carefully digging around the plant, trying not to disturb it too much.]
If we take a good chunk of earth with it, it should do better where you plant it next.
no subject
[even though it will get her wrap dirty and she'll have to scrub it clean somehow. but that's a small price to pay for her very own crocus to nurture.
and Rey watches carefully, mentally filing away what he's doing so she can maybe try it with more flowers. assuming this place had more flowers, it was pretty cold to a girl who grew up on a desert world]
I can get a pot? How big of a pot should I get?
no subject
[Once he has the crocus out of the ground he examines it closely, turning it over in his hand to take a look at the little white roots poking out of the small ball of dirt he's pulled out along with it.]
A small one should be fine... you see how the roots are compact? [He's no botanist, but being an angel comes along with a wealth of knowledge about certain things. He isn't even sure how he knows sometimes, save for being aware that the Creator made sure that he did.]
It doesn't need a lot of room to grow.
no subject
and she listens raptly to the explanation, holding it all in mind so that her crocus can have the best possible life in this strange world] Thank you. Really. For all of your advice. I'm from a desert world, I...it has flowers. I tried taking care of them, but I was only given so much water per day. Do you think they'll have restrictions like that here? They can't, everything's so full of life.
no subject
[While he speaks he helps her to wrap up the muddy roots in the cloth she offered for the flower's transportation. In the time they have been hanging around the little plant he's just been feeling better and better... and honestly it feels like a good idea to bring it with them anyway.]
If it snowed, then there is a weather pattern. So... rain, too. [He looks up and around where they are, a soft frown on his face.]
Nature like this doesn't grow if the ground is always frozen.
no subject
[she can't wait to plant it in a pot and do her best to care for it. surely there are holos about the subject]
I remember the first time I saw rain. It was so strange, watching water fall from the sky.
So it will get even warmer? [and melt the last of the snow. in the still woods, it reminds her far too much of Starkiller Base for comfort]
no subject
[He's still quite new here himself after all, but the general knowledge instilled in him from the time of his creation does give him the ability to draw some conclusions about the place he has found himself in.
Raphael straightens up and looks around them, frowning softly as his gaze shifts through the trees. He still feels uneasy.]
Do you think we're being watched?
no subject
[after all, if she didn't move, she wouldn't find salvage. if she didn't find salvage, she couldn't eat. and she was determined to survive, no matter the cost]
...I think so. Though, why anyone would be interested in two people saving a flower is...well, it's strange.
no subject
[He doesn't like it. It's sending prickles of warning up and down his spine. If he has to he can protect them both but he would rather not have to fight at all.]
It's... difficult for me to tell where the sensation is coming from. [Strange for someone like him, when he has spherical senses that make him almost impossible to sneak up on. It only goes to make him more wary.]
But I don't think it means us well.
no subject
[her connection to the Force is fuzzy at best. she could practically have eyes in the back of her head back home, but now she's largely stuck processing what is]
I can't figure it out, either. I should be able to...sense you, I guess. I do, but it's like trying to see through multiple layers of cloth.
no subject
[There could be a very good reason for that but it isn't one that he's going to speak aloud. Being a divine being could well be obfuscating any natural ability that she has to 'sense' him, and if not... then perhaps it's for the best that she can't examine him so closely.]
We should keep moving. There must be people here... somewhere.
(CW: non-con mind reading--past)
[even though she'd had no idea she could even use the Force until she turned it back and dove into
Ben'sKylo Ren's mind in response]I hope so. [she carried her crocus carefully, as though the slightest wrong move would make it shatter somehow] Unless this is a Resistance base, then the people will have hidden themselves. But this doesn't really look like any planet I've been to before. [other than Starkiller Base and that was not an association she wanted to make]